


Galra 1/2

by sweet_rabbit



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Love Triangles, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Ranma 1/2 au, Romantic Comedy, but still in canon vld, i'm sure there will be a beach episode in this, if the show won't provide then I WILL
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-17 11:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13658214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweet_rabbit/pseuds/sweet_rabbit
Summary: Once Keith found out that he was half Galra, he figured that any signs of that physically would never show up if they hadn't already. He didn't take into account that simply coming into contact with freezing cold water was all that was needed to transform him completely Galra and at the most inappropriate of times, too. But even worse than that, Lotor seems to be interested in Lance...!Yes, Keith totally has his priorities in line, shut up.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hm, yeah, guess who started watching Ranma 1/2 because I was unemployed for a month and a half (not anymore!) and thus needed some form of a 150+ episode series who's style makes me all nostalgic and happy in order to pass the time?
> 
> Well since you're reading this fic I think you can assume it's me. So of course I had to klance that plot with a sprinkle of lancelot. It's what I do.

-/-/-

Keith wouldn’t say he was the most important person in the universe, no. Sometimes it felt like that role was being shoved onto him in the form of suddenly being forced to be the Black Paladin, everybody completely ignoring his opinion on the matter, then again in regards to his mother apparently being a member of a secret space agent group intent on bringing down a galactic empire. That was crazy. And also preferable to the leading the paladins things given he respected Shiro too much to take that away from him. Then the lion rejected Shiro, but then accepted him, and yeah, that whole thing was weird because what, did it think Shiro was a clone and therefore not the real Shiro or something? Then Prince Lotor shows up just in time to save Keith’s bacon, and hell no Keith was not going to admit to being thankful for that! In fact, he wanted to go up to Lotor himself and give that guy a piece of his mind.

Except he was kind of grounded.

Which was totally unfair because despite the universe not revolving around Keith, he at least felt he was in a high enough position in regards to protecting the ungrateful universe that he would be involved in simple truce negotiations.

“You need to cool off, Keith,” Kolivan had instructed once they were all on some neutral barely inhabited planet. Not to mention, away from the Important People group.

“I’m totally cool!” Keith not exactly calmly responded. “I need to be involved in this!”

“I don’t believe you are in the best mind at the moment to be involved in decision making for such a… delicate matter.”

“Why the hell not?!”

“Because you just returned from nearly dying in a situation where you believed it to be the best idea to ram a ship barely an eighth the size of the target into its force field in what was sure to be a failed attempt at deactivating it.”

“It could have worked!”

“No, it really would not have. The large deployment vessels take flying debris and fighter ships being flung at them from enemy fire into consideration when testing their shields, as it is sure to happen. There is absolutely no way for the ship you were in to have achieved anything except exploding.”

“… Oh.”

“Indeed. Nevertheless, that is not what is important. What is, is that you are safe, but also quite wound up from what was surely a very intense experience. You’re exhausted both mentally and physically and I think it best that you take the time to calm down by reuniting with your old team. Specifically the blue one.”

If Kolivan wanted Keith to relax both mentally and physically, claiming that he needed to be with Lance to do so was very much not the right thing to say. His brain immediately went into overdrive on what his commander could possibly be implying and also if that meant he was sneaking into his room to check for drugs, but instead found that tiny photo Keith kepts under his pillow of his team. And so what if there was a tiny heart drawn near Lance’s head in it, that could mean a thousand different things when you’re in space, back off.

“You’re sweating,” Kolivan suddenly pointed out.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s no big deal!” Keith coolly brushed off.  “Just, uh, why do you want me to hang out with Lance specifically…?”

“… Is blue not a calming color to surround one’s self with when stressed?”

Keith opted not to respond and instead wisely walked away. He was still annoyed, don’t get him wrong, he definitely should have been involved in that agreement, all of Voltron should honestly, but… okay, he could understand that at the end of the day this portion was more political than anything. Allura, Shiro, Kolivan and ever Matt were indeed the best ones to be there and that probably the less people the better. But Keith’s brain was scrambled right then, he couldn’t be expected to process emotions that were not “anger,” “relief,” and “oh wow Lance looks really good near water.”

That third emotion was the emotion that states facts, by the way. Don’t get any funny ideas.

It was also the truth. Lance was currently sitting by a small pool of water with his feet dipped in, lazily kicking them around. The guy had a habit after battles to go and take a bath in order to calm him down, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that he was finding the next best thing to replace it before they could officially dismiss. A calm Lance was always the best Lance, making it basically any time he was near water to be the Best Lance.

Despite all of the recent switch ups, he really was the true Blue Paladin.

“Keith!” He was suddenly interrupted from his totally not fawning by Hunk running up to him, a living embodiment of worry. “Keith, you’re okay! At least you look okay, that doesn’t say much because of your brain and also the possibility of internal bleeding which I am not going to think about and instead just hug you real gently, okay?!”

Keith didn’t respond and instead accepted his fate of being hugged. Not having to stand for a bit was a nice break for his current jelly legs.

Hunk proceeded to carry Keith like a kitten over to Pidge and Lance before setting him down. Pidge seemed to be going over some data more than likely regarding that entire Naxela debacle for the future because yeah, that was a huge wrench in their plans, while Lance adorably tilted his head bad to smile at Keith.

“Glad to see everybody made it back in one piece!” he said.

“Yeah,” Keith agreed. “It’s good to see you guys are okay, too. From what Shiro and Allura told me it sounds like a pretty bad situation you all got put in.”

“We’re fine, man, everything’s good.” Lance waved his hand around as if he was brushing away the past couple of hours from the air. “Allura got us out of there with her awesome powers and stuff, it was really cool. So yeah, nothing to dwell on, right?”

“Except for Lotor,” Pidge pointed out. “We might have to be dwelling on him for a while if we’re going to have a truce with the guy.”

A silence fell over the four for a moment after that statement. It was obvious that none of them trusted Lotor, but there was also the fact that he most likely held a possible wealth of extremely useful inside information. Keith, however, couldn’t stand the idea of the guy being on the same ship as the most important people in his life, especially if he wasn’t going to be there to keep an eye on him himself. They still didn’t know much of anything about him and his schemes. At least with Zarkon they had the fact that he was openly in charge of every planning process as well as background information on him. Not to mention they could pretty much just Space Google the guy and get his entire 10,000 year history and accomplishments all on file. Meanwhile, they had only just found out that Lotor even exists. Add into that the fact that his father apparently had a kill on sight order for him and that just makes everything all the more bizarre and suspicious.

“You’re growling, dude,” Hunk whispered. “It’s kind of freaky.”

“I’m just pissed,” Keith hissed, his fists clenching tight. “I hate not knowing what’s going on!”

“Same,” Pidge said. “The situation isn’t ideal, and I wish we just had some sort of brain sucking machine to get whatever info we want out of Lotor and then be done with him.”

“I don’t think that’s ethical,” Hunk pointed out.

“So you’re saying you don’t want to help me build one?”

“Well, I mean, nobody said anything about not just building one!”

“That’s not going to help things now!” Keith continued. “We’re so desperate for any step up on Zarkon, especially after all of us nearly being blown up, that they’re over there more than likely agreeing to all of what Lotor wants!”

By this point, he had the attention of all three of the paladins, Lance having stood up from the side of the pond.

“I bet that that stuck up piece up shit will insist on taking the swankiest room and will complain nonstop about the food, too! God, he’s probably got an entire list of demands a mile long that are all about humiliating us and then publicly broadcasting it in order to regain favor with his father. Think about it, we haven’t even seen his face and now we’re expected to dance for him?!”

Lance was now standing behind him while Pidge and Hunk’s once thoughtful, attentive expressions had morphed into amusement and confusion respectively.

“Ugh, and I did see his face for a bit, too! His hair is stupid long, he’s absolutely going to use up all y’all’s hot water supply with that shiny, ridiculous mane! Don’t get me started on that ship of his, too, if he dares command any of you to clean it, call me! I’ll kick his ass!”

“Keith.”

“Fuck, I’ll kick his ass now!”

“Keith?”

“I’m gonna do just that, I’m gonna kick his ass and then we’ll see who’s demands in this truce we’ll listen to!”

“KEITH, COOL DOWN!”

With that last shout in his ear, Lance proceeded to shove Keith straight into the icy water.

And damn, if that pond wasn’t way deeper and colder than he thought it was because it just felt like he kept going and couldn’t reach back to the surface. He knew he wasn’t that far away from it, seeing how he could still see the others and also barely hear Lance’s nagging of, “Stop rushing into things that’ll get you killed” and “You’re a paranoid maniac” as well as “Wait I thought you could swim.”

Before he could bother to give any thoughts to those statements,  out of the corner of his eye Keith noticed a large formation of bubbles beginning to surround him. He briefly wondered if this was the reason he was unable to make his way back up, only to suddenly be surround by the foam and hurled towards to surface going on his last bit of breath.

With a huge gulp of air, Keith burst through the water and shouted, “Lance, what the hell, I could have died!” The three stared at him blankly for a bit, making Keith realize his mistake. “Again.” There, that should clear things up.

Except it didn’t. All three of them just continued to stare up at him as if he had grown a second head and was singing Yankee Doodle Dandy while balancing eggplants on…

Wait.

Up?

That was only a thing that Pidge should be doing, not Lance and Hunk as they were either taller or pretty similar in height to him. So why…?

“Galra!” Hunk finally exclaimed, wildly pointing at Keith. “Keith got eaten by an underwater Galra and acquired his hair, voice and scowl! We’re in so much trouble!”

“What are you talking about?!” Keith yelled. Hunk flinched back while Pidge and Lance leaned forward in curiosity. “I’m Keith! I wasn’t eaten by anything but I… am taller? Guys, am I standing on something?”

“No,” Pidge slowly answered. “You’re definitely… taller.”

“Yeah?”

“And…”

“Yeah?”

“Kind of purple?”

“…”

“And you have fangs!” Hunk added. “And big ears.”

At this point Keith was refusing to look anywhere but straight ahead as he was sort of experiencing some major vertigo and a distinct refusal to check to see if they were right.

“You don’t believe them, do you?” Lance finally spoke up. “And here I was staying quiet hoping that hearing it from the Egg Head Duo would make you actually believe them. Looks like it’s up to me to break it to you gently, huh?”

Again, Keith was dead set on not acknowledging anything was different and thus could only see Lance moving towards him out of his peripheral. Even when the Blue Paladin was right in front of him, his head now only reaching to just below Keith’s shoulders, he kept his eyes straight ahead. This made it so when Lance shoved a compact mirror (because of course he would be carrying that around, even on missions it seems) directly in front of Keith’s face, showing him his furrowed eyebrows, and down turned lips.

Only now there was noticeably more shades of purple there, too.

And fangs.

And ears.

And in the back of Keith’s head he found himself thankful that the Blade of Marmora suits conformed to different sizes because he was not prepared to see what other changes may have happened in the below the belt area.

The only appropriate response to this was clearly to start screaming.

-/-/-


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important info: the document for this is labeled "Those Idiot Anime Teens"
> 
> Also thanks for reading and for all the likes and comments, super appreciated! :D

-/-/-

Hopefully that truce meeting was already done. Keith wasn’t sure how long they had been discussing things before he was officially grounded from participating, but the meeting was definitely at least put on hold when they all rushed over to see why everybody was screaming. For the record, Keith knew why he was screaming. It was because he was suddenly at least a foot taller, a couple edges pointer and for sure ten shades deeper of purple. Hunk and Pidge were probably screaming because he startled them, while Lance more than likely just wanted to be included.

“Keith?!” Leave it to Shiro to still recognize Keith even in a state of purple panic. “Is this really Keith? Keith are you really Keith?!”

“As far as we can tell, yeah,” Lance supplied, compact back wherever he secretly kept it on his body (in those little packets on their hips, nothing terribly kinky about it). “I shoved him into the pond, bubbles started to form and I thought he was farting, but then he comes back up all tall, broad and Galra.”

Shiro looked at Lance who just shrugged his shoulders, before turning to more calmly address Keith. “Keith! Keith, for the love of God, stop screaming!”

Allura then took things into her own capable hands and reached up to slap the new Galra across the face. It nearly brought tears to his eyes because Allura should never have to reach UP to slap Keith. It felt wrong.

“Alright now that you’ve, HUNK, PIDGE! The no more screaming goes for you two, too!”

They did as commanded while Lance explained to Allura why he was giggling at Shiro saying “tutu.”

“Right. Now that everyone is done screaming,” –he made sure to give the group a pointed look at that- “we can try to properly figure out what exactly is going on… Kolivan, any idea what is going on?”

All eyes turned to the commander who, for once, actually looked like he was expressing an emotion: confusion.

“I hate to say it,” he slowly began, “but I am afraid that I am at a loss myself. I assumed that as a half Galra, any possible Galran traits would be already shown at birth and through puberty. Keith, have you finished puberty?”

Keith spluttered in embarrassment, praying that his new purple skin hid any blush, before answering, “Yes! I’m pretty sure I’m somewhere close to twenty now!”

“That means nothing to me, I have no reference for Earth time.”

“I do!” Matt spoke up. “And his answer is more along the lines of ‘kind of.’ Earth puberty can go longer and some even experience second puberty. Keith, are you going through second puberty? It’s okay, don’t be shy.”

Keith had only known Matt for less than a day, but he already was suspicious of his intentions. Not in the evil way, just in the ‘this guy is an older version of Pidge who taught her a good deal of what she knows and thus one should be wary of.’ Not as much as he was wary of Lotor, though, who seemed to have finally made his way over to the group looking completely bored to the point where it was shocking he wasn’t casually picking at his nails/claws/whatever he had.

Probably all part of his plan, Keith thought. Also looks like the truce went in his favor…

“While I am not an expert on Earth puberty, I also don’t think that this is what is happening with Keith,” Allura wisely pointed out. “Not many species suddenly have a complete transformation simply by falling into water, and I don’t believe it happens to either Earthlings or Galran.”

“You would be correct, Princess,” Kolivan confirmed.

“Think it’s the water?” Matt asked, a grin slowly spread across his face. “’Cause I read a comic back on Earth where something like this happened.”

“Really?” Allura asked. “Do you think it could be factually based?”

“On Earth? No. In space? Probably!”

“Matt, you’re not-”

“Hush, Pidge, I’m explaining science. See, it said that there are ancient springs that were part of many tragic drowning’s and thus whomever falls into one will take the form of the victim’s body whenever doused with cold water. Then all kinds of whacky shenanigans will occur!”

Everybody stared at him for about a minute before Pidge took the initiative and said, “Matt, don’t spread your weab shit through the universe.”

“It’s VINTAGE weab shit, Pidge, shut up! Besides, you can’t deny that that’s a huge possibility of what is happening here.”

“Are you serious? What happened to ‘science,’ huh?”

“Science left the building when Keith pulled a Ramna ½ but turned into a giant purple people eater instead of a sexy lady!”

“Just because something doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean that it suddenly is an anime!”

“Then what do you propose is going on here?”

“Exactly what you are saying is going on,” Lotor suddenly spoke up, his tone as bored sounding as his posture appeared. Keith had almost forgotten that the former prince was even there, given how silent he was and also the fact that Keith was having a personal crisis (he was having a lot of those recently). He also wasn’t pleased being reminded of him, either, and made sure to make it known.

“And what would you know about any of this?” he asked. “What, this one of your personal planets from one of your conquests?”

Lotor raised an eyebrow at him complete with a smirk before responding, “No, there’s pretty much nothing here except some herd of tiny cat creatures. It would be absolutely ridiculous to bother with such a place aside from silly pride.”

“Oh? I didn’t think that that mattered to you, don’t you and your father just want to claim every planet for yourselves just because?”

“You clearly have no idea how we function, which is exactly what I’m here to tell you about. Well, all of the important members, that is.”

Before Keith could lunge at Lotor in order to try out his new Galra body, Allura quickly stepped between the two.

“I believe you were making a claim to know how this happened to Keith?” she said. “It would be nice to know, as well as a token of good faith when starting our truce, especially considering you two will be staying in the castle with the rest of us for the time being.”

“What?!” Keith shouted, head snapping to Kolivan.

He shrugged. “I feel it important for us to have an extra eye on Lotor, a personal guard if you will. Lotor agreed to it.”

“It seems I’m lucky,” Lotor said, clearly not thrilled with his “luck”. “I have a tendency to surround myself with fellow half Galra, and without even trying to it has happened on its own. Hurray.”

“Which is why,” Shiro added, “you should have an idea for why Keith suddenly changed when in the water.”

“Yes.”

Silence.

“Are you going to tell us?”

“… I suppose. ‘Good faith,’ as the princess stated.” Before he continued, Lotor made his way over to the pond, the others making it a clear path for his as if he had cooties. Dipping his hand in for a moment, Lotor hummed in thought and stood back up. “As I thought. This water is ice cold. Tell me… you. How often in your life have you come into full body contact with water this cold?”

“My name is Keith, everybody here has nearly screamed it for the past ten minutes, how could you not-”

“Keith.”

“See, right there! Shiro, tell him-!”

“Keith, just answer the question!”

“Fine. Uh, like cold or cold cold?”

“This cold, the cold you are standing in now.” Lotor was growing impatient, it seems. Keith approved.

“Right. No, I grew up in a hot area with not much in regards to water access so it was kind of all outside. The outside heat made the water even when cold more warm than anything when taking a shower.”

“Well then, there we have it. The Galra run much hotter than other species, one example being Alteans who seem very similar in build to Earthlings. I can’t speak in regards to Earthlings, but as I am half Altean-”

“Wait, what?!”

“Yes, I know, Hunk, we’ll all discuss it later.”

“-I can say for a fact that in regards to changing my shape, the process can be disturbed by extremely cold temperatures. Say, for example, falling into an ice cold pond like a complete dolt.” Lotor glanced at Keith after that sentence, while Keith decided to be the bigger man and not respond. Lotor was annoyingly unfazed. “While I know that Earthlings are unable to change their appearances by will, I would assume that whatever Galra blood you have was somehow agitated by the sudden downfall in body temperature and changed into a sturdier form to help contain heat.”

As Lotor finished his theory, all everybody could do was stand there for a while and take it all in. Personally, Keith found it all to be bull shit, but that might have been because he despised the guy and therefore didn’t want him to be right, and also because he honestly didn’t think he would believe any scientific explanation since the entire scenario was ridiculous.

Arguably, Matt’s was the strongest theory since it went more with the “just because” route.

“So then does that mean we could just warm him up to change him back?” Hunk offered.

“I’d probably stick with hot water, yes,” Lotor replied. “Best to remedy with the cause, to be safe.”

“I’ll go get the kettle ready!” Of course Hunk was just wanting to be the first to leave the awkward situation.

“I’ll join you, Hunk!” Allura called after. “Lotor, you may join us as well given that it’s only appropriate that I show you where you will be staying. Also so we can get you a Welcome Milkshake!”

“Why Princess, how hospitable of you.”

“Oh ho ho! It’s only natural to be kind to our new ally! Now come along, your milkshake awaits!”

The three trotted off to the ship that Coran was currently fixing minor damages on before they could take off again. This left the others to reflect on how very not hospitable Allura’s actions were and that things were about to get very passive aggressive.

-

It was barely five minutes after Lotor had entered the ship when he started making his way back down the castle’s steps onto the planet, with a hand holding his aching head. “Welcome Milkshake,” indeed. How convenient that the princess offered him such a thing after he had just explained how sensitive the Galra are to the cold. Her little titter of how she didn’t get what was called “brain freeze” so she assumed his half Altean self would react the same was just barely believable to pass off as genuine, but he knew better.

Probably because he would have pulled the same stunt.

No matter, though.

He was fully prepared for the princess and other leaders present to simply omit valuable information as opposed to straight up lying. It probably helped their conscious. He could play the same game and fully intended to simply follow their example of merely forgetting certain important things.

Like the fact that he had some druid magic skills and could use them to go beyond what even a full blooded Altean could achieve in their transformations. In fact, he could even go so far as to transform into one of those cat creatures, as they looked very similar to Kova whom he had frequently practiced morphing into back when he felt it important to master his magic skills. Nowadays this trick wasn’t all that useful seeing how a cat on a war vessel was too odd and suspicious.

But should a cat from a planet they were parked on wonder along and gain the affections of a certain young green paladin who then would surely proceed to adopt it and bring it along with her, then what would be odd about that?

-/-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't planning on posting today but then my art program crashed on me making it not possible for at least today to get that work done. Luckily the page was saved before it did so, thank God. Basically my plans for today got canceled so here I am!
> 
> On that note, though, if anyone is interested it's my portion of this: https://twitter.com/lanceanthology
> 
> If you like Lance and pretty much all Lance ships, like myself, keep an eye out for it!


	3. Chapter 3

-/-/-

“So I guess that since you’re out of the water now,” Lance was saying while helping Keith dry off to not be as cold, “you can’t really be ‘stewing’ in your anger anymore, huh?”

While everybody groaned at the not too terrible but still awful pun, the current Galra Keith couldn’t help but chuckle at it. It was just admittedly adorable how Lance had the ability to win people over with his silliness, something Keith wished the Blue Paladin was more aware of than trying to play the cool guy. He was cool, just in a more effortless way. Like when he would shoot a gun out of an enemy’s hand from a football field’s length away, then turn around and get the guy sneaking up on him within the span one second.

That shit was HOT.

Thankfully Keith was too cold and confused to let that thought go very far.

“What’s this?” Lance continued.  “Are you actually laughing at one of my jokes, Purple Boy?”

“More like how ridiculous they are,” Keith, regrettably, answered. He could hear Lance “hmph!” from his position above him, as Keith was sitting down so he could reach his head, in offense because of course he would. Keith was bizarrely incapable of just going, “yeah you’re funny, Lance, please let me kiss you!” That second part is an impossibility in any and all realities for the boy, but the first one should just be basic human decency. He blames his current state of Ultra Galra for this, not accounting for the 100% of his past where he Wasn’t So Galra.

“At least I TRY to make people laugh!” Lance countered, his towel rubbing on Keith’s head growing rougher. “Unlike others who just ooze emo whenever they walk into a room.”

“For the last time, I’m NOT emo,” Keith growled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you a scene kid now? That makes more sense what with all the purple you’re accessorizing your hair with. And it’s shape.”

“You’re just jealous that my hair has some shape, unlike your ass!”

“You did NOT just go there, Gem and the Holograms!”

“Yup,” Matt interrupted the two. “Just like Ranma and Akane.”

Keith and Lance stared at Matt for a few seconds before turning to one another and sticking their tongues out. Surely this could be considered flirting, right?  By the suddenly rough treatment of Keith’s hair from Lance’s towel, the answer was probably no.

“Kettle’s ready!” Hunk called out as he approached the group.

“Finally, I’m sick of being stuck in the Anime Club,” Pidge sighed. “The sexual tension and nerd references are giving me hives.”

“I refuse to acknowledge your pain, Pidge,” Keith said. “As I am suddenly a FREAKIN’ GALRA!”

“You’ve always been half of a freakin’ Galra, now you just look the part. Don’t be selfness in your pity party!”

“Guys? Kettle? Hot water?” Hunk tried again. “Gonna get us a Human Keith?”

“Yes please!” Lance exclaimed with a skip past Keith. The purple boy just barely missed the not so subtle towel whip attempt at his life. “I swear Galra Keith is even more depressing than Human Keith. Even if he is more interesting to look at.”

Wait… Did Lance mean what Keith thought he meant?

A part of Keith knew that it was more of a not so obvious insult than a compliment, but still, Lance had only ever teased him in any aspect of his looks. Not a lot, no, it was all mainly hair based which was something that never bothered Keith. His dad only knew one way to cut hair, so mini mullet it was. He was too far gone to change that and was comfortable with it. Still, though, in a reality where he knew he would never get a swooning, “oh Keith you’re so dreamy!” from Lance, an “interesting to look at” was something he could work with.

And intended to.

“Say, uh, Hunk?” he hesitantly began. “Maybe hold off on that for a bit?”

“Why?” Hunk asked. “It was barely fifteen minutes ago you were someone both frozen with shock and screaming your head off at the fact that you’re a whole Galra.”

“Um, yeah, I know, I was there. Just, I was thinking that maybe I should try and train with this form? I mean, if it makes me stronger and a better asset to help protecting the universe then I think it’s worth a shot. Not to mention maybe seeing myself as a Galra with help me accept myself as Galra.” That’s it, Keith, just play the pity card.

“While your thoughts are quite admirable and deep,” Kolivan unhelpfully butted in, “I do believe it also important to at least test Lotor’s theory on how you are able to transform, then proceed with further studies.”

“I’m with Kolivan,” Pidge also unhelpfully butted in. “Aside from general curiosity, we don’t want your transformations to catch us by surprise. Not mention we can then keep it under control to help with undercover missions.”

Keith was a man of instinct, not long term planning. Therefore, he hung his head, admitting defeat and accepting the hot water to be poured over his head. Which was a lot hotter than expected and he was quickly jumping up away from it and the steam cloud he had been enveloped in after barely five seconds.

“What the quiznack, Hunk, you couldn’t have had the first test be with something that WASN’T boiling?!”

“Sorry,” was quickly said. “But hey, it worked!”

Sure enough, Keith looked down at his hands and found that they were no longer crazy huge with claws and were back to his regular human hands and fingers. He felt his shoulders droop in relief, knowing that it was not only possible but incredibly easy to change human again. Of course, if they were to continue to experiment on specific temperatures, hopefully that meant that non scalding hot water would manage to humanize him, too.

“Now that that seems to be settled,” Shiro started, also noticeably less tense which was saying something, “I think we all have a lot of plans to go over that we should get started on sooner rather than later.”

“Agreed,” Kolivan responded. “Keith, I apologize for the suddenness of our departure. I assume you understand given the unexpected circumstances?”

“As a Blade member, I am aware of my duties.”

“Very good. Just know that… should you ever need, ah, advice, I am always available. I shall be going now… Be good and eat well, Keith.”

As Kolivan walked off into the setting green sun(s) of the planet, Keith’s heart pulled a little bit towards the distant memories of being sent off to his first day of school. The situation was not at all similar, it was more like going back to camp (or was the Blade camp?), but it was clear the emotions Kolivan was expressing in that moment. Emotions which could only be read by someone like Keith who had spent so much time with him. It made him feel warm on the inside knowing that the older Galra seemed to have grown as fond to Keith as Keith had to him.

“Heh heh, Keith said ‘duty.’”

And thus Lance ruined it with his twelve year old humor.

“Lance, I swear, I already am pissed-stressed with the whole Lotor thing, okay? Do not-”

“Oh my frell, get off me VILE BEAST!” Pidge was suddenly squawking from a little behind the group.

Looking back at her, the “vile beast” appeared to be some sort of cat creature that was native to the planet they were on and also trying to snuggle up to the young paladin. It was different shades of purple and had a main of silver hair going down it’s spine, ears large and pricked up in surprise of Pidge’s flailing arms. Keith wondered why it wasn't running off, when he noticed that it appeared to be limping slightly as if it was hurt.

“Pidge, calm down,” Shiro instructed as he walked over to her. “It’s not attacking you, it just wants to be friends.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly a cat person,” she responded. By that point she had quickly hid behind Shiro and Matt and started glaring at the creature. “Why do you think I named that robot Rover and not Mr. Mittens?”

“Well how do you explain piloting a giant cat, then?” Matt countered.

“Green is different! She’s the most beautiful cat in the universe, anybody would make an exception for her!”

“Um, excuse me?” Lance started. “I believe you mean to say Blue is in fact the most beautiful and radiant and perfect and gorgeous feline in the universe, _thank you_.”

“You’re not even piloting Blue right now!”

“Doesn’t matter, a fact is a fact! Besides, I can’t trust your judgment if you seriously are wary of the purple fluff ball over there. He’s adorable!”

For a split second, Keith and Hunk looked at each other sharing the same thought: Is Lance talking about Keith? Except then the paladin in question practically skipped over to the rather long cat and knelt down beside it while holding out his hands.

“Come here, sweetie,” he cooed. “That little paw of yours looks like it hurts. How about you come with us and we’ll check it out?”

“Uh, Lance?” Hunk spoke up. “You really think that approaching the creature of unknown origins and really pointy teeth is a good idea? I mean, call me crazy, but maybe we should create some sort of Space Pokédex  and THEN approach the alien cats.”

“Hunk, I thought you were on my side about cute, tiny aliens?”

“I am, but not when they’re pointy and glaring at me!”

“Oh, he’s not glaring at you! Are you P-chan?”

It must have been the paladin mind meld bond thing still stuck in his head, as Red never quite left his consciousness either, because Keith swore that he heard a group hiss of, “oh no.” Once something was named, a bond was pretty much solidified and while a robot droid was an acceptable pet to have, a strange alien feline was not, as while one needed food and potty clean up, the other did not. The question was, though, who was going to break the news to Lance...

Lance, who had successfully gotten the creature to come into his lap. It was interesting to note, too, that it seemed almost confused compared to how it had approached Pidge.

“See?” he was saying. “Harmless! And super cool, just like me.”

“Uh, Lance?” Shiro, thankfully, stepped forward like any good leader should. “I think it’s about time we all go back to the castle and get things settled, what with our new arrangements and everything.”

“You’re right!” Everyone sighed in relief at how easy that thankfully was. “P-chan, here, needs to get his paw wrapped up and probably some food in his belly. I should also go find some extra blankets and figure out what an Altean equivalent to kitty litter is, too.”

Without looking back, Lance scooped up… P-chan, and happily made his way back to the castle ship. While Matt seemed curious of how that just happened, three others of the group sent looks of pity towards their leader, as they were sure that  none of them would have been able to come up with a convincing argument against Lance in regards to keeping a pet on board. He was the youngest of five kids, after all, and knew all the tricks to getting his way, one of them easily probably would have been, “Pidge got a pet, why can’t I? You like her better than me, don’t you?!”

Basically it was a conversation everybody was wanting to avoid, especially Keith when he remembered that little chat the two of them had in his room. If Lance was still feeling like he wasn’t as important to the team, maybe it was a good thing to have something to distract him. A pet to take care of was perfect for that.

Plus, Keith was okay with animals for the most part. Maybe this could be a way for the two to spend more time together and bond more?

-/-/-

This was… not to plan, no, but also not awful.

Lotor found the blue one, Lance, to be quite talkative considering he was speaking to what, for all he knew, was an animal incapable of speech. This was a good thing. If he kept talking then he was sure to spill some of Voltron’s secrets. Then again, Lotor wasn’t quite sure what the paladin’s role was on the team so who was to say he even knew anything useful.

It was obvious that the green one was the smart one, given that she was already tapping away on some computer when he first saw her. The yellow one also appeared to be a smart one, but more in the engineering side of things as he was helping the rebels with ship repairs. Also not a bad place to go for information. The black one was the leader and the pink one was the princess. Very straight forward roles with much knowledge, but most likely to be too serious to deal with pets. He could have sworn there was also a red paladin, considering there was a red lion, yet no red armor was seen.

So what was the blue one's purpose?

Lotor’s thoughts were momentarily distracted by a kiss to his current cat head.

That… that was also not part of the plan.

“I’d kiss your paw better but I don’t know if you’ve been stepping in shit with it or not,” Lance was saying, a large smile on his face. “So I kissed your head instead! The paw has some solve on it to speed up the healing process, but luckily there wasn’t anything in there we needed to get out. You’ll be good as new in a few days, P-chan!”

Ah, yes. He had also acquired a new name. That would take some getting used to.

“Coran said that you seem to be an outlier for your species, kind of like an albino gator on earth. You been kicked out of your pack for being different?”

Not quite, Lotor thought to himself. But also shockingly similar to how things are right now, so yes.

“Poor thing.” By then Lance had picked Lotor back up and was cuddling him to his still armored chest. “He said that it was peculiar that you were alone, so I guess that that’s what happened. But don’t worry! You can have a new pack, the Voltron Pack! Kind of, Pidge didn’t seem to be keen on you, but she’ll come around. Hunk will, too, and Keith and Shiro could probably use some animal therapy anyway. You up for that?”

Lotor did his best to make a face of disgust. It seemed he achieved it because Lance started laughing hysterically.

“Ah man, I’ll have to try and get you to make that face again so I can get a picture! That was great!”

That was also not a reaction he was planning. His plans were, admittedly, not the best. They for some reason rarely worked, though Lotor prided himself on adapting to situations as they came to him. This, for instance. Making somebody laugh was a curious outcome, one he had no experience with. And as he looked up at Lance and Lance looked back down at him, smiling gently, he felt that this was probably a much better outcome than what his original plan entailed anyway.

-/-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Lotor is taking Ryoga's role. My two Best Boys <3


End file.
